And while George W. Bush was trying to prove his manhood in Iraq

...al-Qaeda was rebuilding in Pakistan:

Senior leaders of Al Qaeda operating from Pakistan have re-established significant control over their once-battered worldwide terror network and over the past year have set up a band of training camps in the tribal regions near the Afghan border, according to American intelligence and counterterrorism officials.

American officials said there was mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, had been steadily building an operations hub in the mountainous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Until recently, the Bush administration had described Mr. bin Laden and Mr. Zawahri as detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of Al Qaeda.

The United States has also identified several new Qaeda compounds in North Waziristan, including one that officials said might be training operatives for strikes against targets beyond Afghanistan.

American analysts said recent intelligence showed that the compounds functioned under a loose command structure and were operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with Al Qaeda. They receive guidance from their commanders and Mr. Zawahri, the analysts said. Mr. bin Laden, who has long played less of an operational role, appears to have little direct involvement.

Officials said the training camps had yet to reach the size and level of sophistication of the Qaeda camps established in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. But groups of 10 to 20 men are being trained at the camps, the officials said, and the Qaeda infrastructure in the region is gradually becoming more mature.

The new warnings are different from those made in recent months by intelligence officials and terrorism experts, who have spoken about the growing abilities of Taliban forces and Pakistani militants to launch attacks into Afghanistan. American officials say that the new intelligence is focused on Al Qaeda and points to the prospect that the terrorist network is gaining in strength despite more than five years of a sustained American-led campaign to weaken it.

Well, I wouldn't call the Bush Administration's efforts "a sustained campaign to weaken it." In fact, I would say that by becoming bogged down in Iraq, the Bush Administration abandoned efforts to weaken al-Qaeda in favor of the shiny new bauble of Iraq. And now, of course, the new playtoy of Iran has been dangled in front of George W. Bush's nose, and so he's preparing for an expanded war against that country.

And all the while, all during the past 5-1/2 years of rhetoric, through 5-1/2 years of dissenters being called traitors, of government amassing of information about every move that every American makes, of gutting the Constitution and bankrupting the country's future, those who were allegedly behind the 9/11 plot have been left alone to regroup and regain strength.

Every day, the notion that this Administration allowed the 9/11 attacks to play out because it would help them justify their agenda becomes less crazy.